


The Crimes Of Us

by Earth_Phoenix



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Eventual Smut, M/M, Minor Character Death, Professor Tom Riddle, Romantic Soulmates, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Teaching Assistant Harry Potter, Tomarry Halloween Exchange 2018
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 13:03:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16535096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earth_Phoenix/pseuds/Earth_Phoenix
Summary: Harry Potter is unusual even by wizarding standards. At the age of 16, wizards and witches get their soul marks. Harry never got his and he's fine with that *really.*Harry quickly settles into a job that will raise more than one eyebrow.James and Lily are worried for their sons happiness, a wizard with out a mark is doomed to live a lonely life.If only they knew...





	The Crimes Of Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RedHorse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedHorse/gifts).



> Beta'd by the amazing copper! Red I hope you enjoy your Professor Riddle fic!!

Hedwig soared through the open window, settling on Harry’s footboard. She let out a soft hoot, clicking her beak when Harry disappeared deeper into the quilt, only a tuft of his wild hair visible. 

“Harry dear, breakfast!” A bright cheerful female voice floated up to the bedroom and Harry groaned. How his mother was able to cheerful this early in the morning, he would never know.

“I’m up!” He called down, his voice muffled by the quilt.

The sound of voices coupled with the smell of breakfast became too interesting to ignore. He pushed the quilt off him and sat up, his hair making him look as if he had been dragged backwards through a hedge. Twice. Harry sighed when he noticed the letter in Hedwig’s claws.

“Fantastic,” he muttered under his breath. He scrambled to his knees and relieved Hedwig of the letter. Tearing off the seal, he read it over quickly, before snorting and crumpling it up.

“Harry!” Exasperation was beginning to creep into Lily’s voice as she called for her son again.

“Want some breakfast, Hedwig?” The snowy owl let out a bright chirp and fluttered over to Harry’s shoulder, her claws digging into his shoulder in a reassuring way. Throwing the screwed up letter over his shoulder and into what was hopefully the bin, Harry slid out of bed and headed downstairs.

 

~*~

 

Breakfast in the Potter house was always loud. Sirius and Remus could often be found in the Potter kitchen, Sirius pranking anyone who wasn’t paying attention. 

“Morning Mum, Dad.” Harry gratefully accepted the steaming mug of black coffee that Remus handed him. “Hullo Uncle Remus, Uncle Sirius.”

“Morning, Pup,” Sirius ruffled his hair, his eyes drifting to Harry’s left wrist. Harry self-consciously pulled at the thick brown leather bracelet that covered his wrist.

“Still nothing Siri,” Harry shrugged helplessly, keen to move the subject along. “How’s work?”

“Your uncle!” Lily moved around the kitchen with grace, her hands moving effortlessly over every pot and pan, adding a pinch of salt to one dish or other. “Went and tried to chase down a group of Death Eaters on his own.” She turned to face the room, hands on hips, her long red braid bouncing over her shoulder as she swung around.

Sirius laughed, sitting next to Remus, “I nearly had them!”

“No,  _ they  _ nearly had  _ you _ in a coffin _. _ Thankfully your dad was able to catch up with the idiot.”

Harry laughed as his dad and Sirius shared a wink. Lily placed a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Harry.

“Now eat up, the portkey leaves in an hour and you don’t want to be late. Albus is expecting you.”  

Harry, who had just picked up his knife and fork placed them back down again, no longer hungry. “Oh, yeah. I need to, erm, shower.” He stood up and left the room.

Once in the hallway, he stopped, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching him, and then peeled back the bracelet to look at the skin of his wrist. His stomach lurched at the sight. He cursed softly and stomped up the stairs. He really did need a shower.

 

~*~

 

An hour later and Harry found himself in his former headmaster’s office, feeling like a naughty student. On the rare occasions he had been in this office, he had always been accompanied by his parents because a prank got out of hand. 

“Thank you for seeing me, Headmaster,” Harry said trying his best not to fidget in his seat.

“Not at all, not at all!” Dumbledore’s smile was relaxed and genuine. “I was pleasantly surprised when your name was put forward.” The twinkle in the old man’s eye was working full force.

“So, you’re applying for the position of teaching assistant - I see professor Riddle has already expressed an interest in having you help him in his class.”

“Yes, Sir, as part of my studies to become a qualified teacher I require some assistant teaching experience and I remembered overhearing more than once that the professors often wished they had extra help.”

Albus leaned back in his chair thoughtfully, his calculating blue eyes drifting over to Harry’s covered wrist. “And you’re sure Hogwarts is where you want to be? A boy your age is usually -,” he let the sentence hang.

“With all due respect Sir, my status as unbonded has nothing to do with my desire to teach.” Harry paused, trying to keep his temper in check, “I have no plans to roam around the country in hope of coming across my bonded. If it is truly meant to be, it will be.”

Harry was not going to be  _ shamed _ because of a soul mark. The fact that most of his peers had theirs and were coupling because of ‘destiny’ was starting to wear thin on his nerves.

“Quite true,” Dumbledore said after a moment of tense silence. “You did very well in Professor Riddle’s class if I remember correctly.”

“Yes, Sir. An ‘O’ in both my O.W.L.S and my N.E.W.T.S.”

“Some of the students are going to be siblings of your school friends, how are you going to handle that?” Dumbledore asked.

“I would treat them as I would any other student, I wouldn’t give them any special treatment.”

“And if they tried to pressure you?”

“Then I would raise the issue with you.”

“Excellent. Well then, we’d love to have you, Harry. Professor Riddle has requested you go see him straight away so he can talk schedules and term plans with you - is that OK?”

“Of course,” Harry smiled. “Thank you, Headmaster.”

 

~*~

 

“I’m worried about Harry,” Lily dropped her head onto James’ shoulder. She chewed on her bottom lip. “He should have gotten his mark by now.” 

Lily stared idly at the book she had been trying to read.  She and James were curled up together on their sofa in the living, a blanket thrown over them as they enjoyed one of James’s rare days off. Remus was at work at his bookstore and Sirius was at the Ministry. For once, the house was quiet.

“He’ll be fine, Lils, everyone gets their mark, some just take longer than others.” James squeezed her shoulders, trying to reassure his bonded as much as himself.

 

~*~

 

Harry rocked on his heels before screwing up his courage and knocking on the familiar wooden door.  

“Hello, Harry.” Professor Tom Riddle stood in the doorway, dressed casually in a button-down shirt, Harry tried not to notice that the top three buttons were unbuttoned, showing off his pale chest and black trousers.

Harry directed his eyes to the floor. “Hello, Professor.”

“Oh come on, there’s no need to be so formal.” Tom stepped to one side, allowing Harry to enter his office.

“I think there is,” Harry disagreed. “I’ve just been accepted as your teaching assistant. It’s good to start getting into the habit of addressing each other professionally.”

Tom frowned. “You’re mad at me.” He closed the door with a loud, satisfying thud.  

“Yeah, I am.”

Tom relaxed into his chair, waving Harry into the empty seat across from his desk. “I’m not going to apologise.”

“And I’m not going to stop being formal,  _ Professor, _ ” Harry said snidely.

Tom narrowed his eyes at Harry, fighting the urge to snap at him. “Fine,” he said eventually. He sat up and opened a drawer, pulling out a folder. “Let’s go over my plans for the upcoming school year.”

 

~*~

 

Harry arrived home to the comforting smell of his mother’s homemade stew, his mouth watering at the smell. He was so lucky to have such great parents. 

“I’m home,” he called. He hung his outer robe on the peg by the fireplace and wandered into the kitchen. “I got the job.”

“Well done, Harry!” Lily rushed over and enveloped her son in a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Hear, hear well done Prongslet.”

“Thanks, Sirius - hey where’s dad?”

At this, Sirius let out a bark of laughter and collapsed into a fit of giggles.

“Head off the table, please,” Lily snapped, waving her wand at Sirius. “James is outside - grazing.”

“Oh no,” Harry said, “What did he do now?” He pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. James and his disastrous cooking skills were legendary.

Sirius smiled, “He tried to cook lunch.”

“He knows he’s not allowed to touch the oven!” Lily threw a tea towel onto the counter with annoyance.

“There was smoke everywhere,” Sirius added gleefully.

“What kind of idiot cooks baked beans in an oven?!”

Harry doubled up in laughter, Merlin only knew why his dad still tried to cook when his attempts always failed and resulted in Lily turning him into Prongs to get him out of her hair.

Lily placed a steaming mug of milky tea in front of Harry, “Dinner will be in five minutes, so you’d better go get your dad.”

Harry sniggered, “Sure, and mum - thanks for teaching me how to cook.”

 

~*~

 

Harry sat crossed legged on the bed later that night. Downstairs he could hear his parents’ laughter, the sound of his uncles’ voices as they told jokes. It was an idyllic picture of blissful domesticity.

Harry slipped off his cuff to stare at the twin black marks that appeared on his skin almost the second he had turned sixteen. The symbol of a book was dark black, the other in the image of a crown was harder to see.

Gently he traced each mark with his fingertips. Dealing with Tom every day was going to be tough, but if Harry was anything, it was tough. The sound of the footsteps coming up the stairs snapped him out his thoughts and he quickly placed the leather cuff back on, making sure to completely cover the marks.

“Hey,” James opened Harry’s door and popped his head in. “You OK kiddo?”

“I’m great dad,” Harry smiled affectionately at his father. “I’m probably going to go to bed early though, it’s been a busy day.” 

“OK, night son. Oh, and Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Proud of you.”

“Thanks, dad.”

 

~*~

 

The Hogwarts library felt empty without the tables full of students frantically scribbling away doing last minute homework, Madam Pince ‘shushing’ anyone who breathed a little too loudly. At the same time, it was magical, the books seeming to call out to the would-be reader. 

It also didn’t hurt that now that he was a member of staff, Harry had access to the Restricted Section.

Riddle was planning on teaching the incoming Sixth Years curses and Harry wanted to be a step ahead of him. It was childish he knew, but Riddle always seemed to bring out the pettiness in him.

Harry paused, a dark red leather-bound book catching his eye. He approached the shelf. The book looked ordinary. His hand hovered over the spine, his father’s and Mr. Weasley’s repeated warnings of not to touch strange objects ringing in his ears. Only last week, Sirius had almost lost a hand to a biting muggle telephone. He gulped, he really shouldn’t be messing with unknown books. He drew his hand back. He would find some other book to read.

He walked a few paces away from the book. Before he had even reached the end of the stack, he stopped.  The red leather book now lay on the side of the stacks, waiting impatiently to be read. Harry approached it more warily than before.

Black lettering appeared on the cover.  _ Eternally Entwined: A Guide For Those With Two Marks. _

Harry stepped back and looked around, wondering if someone was toying with him. He ran the length of the stacks, coming back out into the main library. No one was there. He ran back, the sound of his shoes echoing loudly on the floor. Still no one. The place was empty.

Slowly, Harry walked back over to the book. It looked innocent enough. He ran a hand over the title, feeling the deep impressions the words made. Carefully, he flipped open the cover.

 

~*~

 

“I’m tempted to just fail all the students right now,” Tom muttered as he flipped through last year’s homework.  The new school year was just days away and he kept tweaking the year plan, fine-tuning it after finding more examples of his students being below average. 

“Listen to this - Stacy Andrews, a Fifth Year Ravenclaw, doesn’t know the difference between a hex and a curse. I swear these students are getting dumber.” He had given the girl a well deserved T, along with a scathing comment. If she hadn’t learnt from last year he was going to kick her from the class.

“I’ve been saying that for years - at least your students aren’t at risk at blowing up your classroom or poisoning someone.” Rabastan looked up from the potions journal he was reading.

The couple sat in their library, as was their custom during the evenings.

“Hmm, true.” Tom agreed. He gathered up the papers and threw them in the trash in disgust. “If the student’s don’t do better this year, I’m going to hex them all into oblivion.”

“And yet you have Potter helping you this year,” Rabastan observed dryly.

Tom tensed, eyes flashing dangerously. “I really wouldn’t start this fight if I were you.”

Rabastan snorted, “How is that working out for you?”

“Harry,” Tom bit out “is as challenging as ever.” He balled his hands into fists. Merlin damn it.

“Can’t say I blame him really.”

“Rabastan,” Tom growled. Hogwarts would start in a few days and Harry wasn’t exactly warming up to him, he did not need Rabastan needling him as well. “Piss off.”

They glared at each for a long while, until the other man hissed in pain.

“Ah, I see my other self is calling,” Tom smirked. “I’ll join you, I need to speak to him.”

“I miss the days when there was only one if you,” Rabastan muttered, his voice like ice.

“So do I.” Tom agreed with a sly smile. “However, there is one person that might see the benefit of there being two of us.”

“Merlin help him.” Was Rabastan’s dry reply. Tom just smirked.


End file.
